Category Archives: quilts

The Red & White Quilt is Back!

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Remember these blocks? They’ve been sitting for a long time.

Why? Because earlier this year I decided I wanted to make the quilt I had started with these blocks bigger. Of course, I was out of both the white and the red fabrics. I was able to get more of the red, which is from an old Laurel Burch line, fairly quickly. But the white? That proved to be harder to find. Thanks to Judy at Sew Sisters, who scoured the distributors for it, more of the white was finally found and we picked it up at the end of last week.

So over the past couple of days, between doctors’ appointments and tests, I figured out what I needed to print and got my fabrics ready and ironed to freezer paper.

Last night, in under 2 hours, I had the fabrics all printed and now have everything I need to finish my red and white Sunflower/Feathered Star quilt, including the pieced border treatment I’ve got planned for it.

In this close-up, if you click on it to enlarge it, you can see the lines on a couple of the pieces I printed. Because I’m hand piecing the blocks, I’ve printed all the HSTs. If I were going to machine piece, I’d have only printed on the white fabric. I wouldn’t even think of making this quilt without Inklingo. With Inklingo’s precision cutting and stitching lines and matching points, a quilt like the one I have planned is easy as can be.

Baxter has had lots of squirrel activity to watch out on the roof garden over the past few days. Mr. Q.O. calls this photo “Sheer Kitty”.  I call it “Kitty Under Lace”.

A Long-Forgotten Project

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It has been a very long time since I last worked on this. I made the long strips of hexagons months and months ago and had joined about 5 of them and then it sat. And sat and sat some more. Over the past week or so I have spent some time on it and have joined a couple more of the strips to what was already joined. It’s nice easy stitching, which is just perfect for some evenings.

I press as I add each strip. When I made the king-sized 1″ hexagon and elongated hexagon quilt, I left all the pressing to the end. It took next to forever to press that top and my back was practically breaking from the hours I spent at the ironing board. Lesson well and truly learned!

Mr. Q.O. was playing around with photo editing software and turned a Baxter photo into a black and white photo.

Scrappy Star Round 7

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It’s now at 36 inches. I’ve decided to square it up now as I have a couple of borders planned that will take it to a good-sized lap quilt. The last round of diamonds took 2 evenings of stitching to add.

The back. I am so glad I pressed as I went on this. Pressing the last round took only a few minutes as I had finger-pressed as I stitched, but I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to press the whole thing at one time.

Last week I was put on a medication that initially has made me very groggy and I’m sleeping close to 12 hours at a time. That’s not the point of mentioning this, though. The silver lining has been the dreams! I’ve had many dreams of quilt designs and the dreams have stayed with me long enough that I’ve been able to write them down when I woke up. I’m thinking this is a definite bonus.

Mr. Q.O. captioned this photo, “Well, are you going to just sit there or finish it?”

Twinklingo Stars

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I’ve just released a new pattern for the Twinklingo Stars lap quilt that finishes at 57 x 72 inches. This one is perfect for machine piecing or hand piecing and is very quick to put together. It’s made using the Inklingo Tumbler collection .

While I made the original with a white background, making the stars from batiks with a dark background like this block gives a different effect and the stars really sparkle!

Baxter found the whole process rather exhausting!

And then there were 46

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46 of the Pickled Ladies, that is, joined together. Now that I’ve started grading the seams, the difference in the weight of the top is very obvious. It will also make the quilting of this easier, as I am definitely planning on hand quilting it.

There aren’t too many more rows to go. Then it will be time to start adding the partial pickled ladies around the edges and then find the perfect border fabric.

Baxter patrols the windowsill even at night, particularly on windy and rainy nights.

Lots of Trimmings

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Trimming of seams, that is. Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time grading the seams on the Pickled Ladies.  It makes an enormous difference in the weight of the top as well as how it drapes. I’m cutting less than an eighth of an inch off the black triangles in all the arcs. I put one trimming on a ruler to show how little I’m actually cutting off the seam allowance.

This little vase is now almost full of the trimmings.

In this close-up of the back of one of the blocks, you can see how it looks after trimming. While I don’t always grade the seams on quilts, for the Pickled Ladies quilt it makes a big difference and is worth the time and effort.

Baxter was lounging on top of a couch.

26 Pickled Ladies

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The fourth row is now added. They’re easy to put together, thanks to the stitching liens and matching points.

It’s a little difficult to tell from this photo, but the intersection where they meet is easy to press by pressing one of the arcs over the other beside it and then pressing the one below it over both of those.  It may look a bit bulky, but it actually isn’t.

Quilting on the Ferris Wheel quilt is going rather slowly but I am getting it done. Baxter is insistent on helping whenever there’s a quilt on my lap, whether I’m quilting or tacking down binding. At one point last night, he was right under the hoop. He seems to think it’s play time as he attacks my hand that’s underneath the quilt.

Stars of Different Points

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Among the stars I have ready to stitch are a number of LeMoyne Stars in different fabric combinations. They’re from a swap of Inklingo pieces that was done a couple of years ago. While I’m not sure just how many stars I’ll end up with, I don’t plan to add to them unless it’s necessary to get an appropriate number for a small quilt setting.

They take only a second to press.

Another one of the 6-point stars made with 1.5″ diamonds. When they’re all made, I’ll decide how I want to set them.

It rained all day Tuesday and, by the sounds of our forecast, is going to rain all day today. At one point Tuesday it looked like perhaps there was some freezing rain mixed in, but thankfully no snow.

Another photo of Baxter helping as I was putting the binding on the flannel quilt.

Flannel Quilt Finish

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On the weekend, I got the flannel top quilted and bound. The label went on and it was washed and dried yesterday afternoon. Now it’s on its way to its intended recipient. It finished at 56″ x 64″.

Machine quilting it was definitely a case of fabric wrestling. I am so spoiled now using the silk batts that I really noticed how much heavier and more difficult to manoeuvre the cotton batt was. That’s the trade-off, I suppose, for the ease of basting a fusible batt. It ended up as a totally machine-made quilt, other than tacking down the binding, which is totally unusual for me. However, it also made me more confident about my  machine piecing skills.

Putting the binding on was fun. It was lovely and warm and was a true cat magnet. Baxter landed on my lap almost the minute I started tacking the binding down and stayed put for much longer than he usually does. Clearly a little flannel quilt is a must just for him.

Inspiration Finally Struck

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For the past few years, I’ve had these set aside – two charm packs and a yard of one of the fabrics – waiting for an idea. Every few months, I’d get them out and look at them hoping for inspiration.

On the weekend, thanks to a new Inklingo collection of squares that are designed to go with this collection of HSTs, inspiration finally struck. I’m going to make a quilt composed of a couple of different sizes of square in a square blocks.

These blocks finish at 5″ and are made using the 3.53″ square with the 2.5″ HST. I’ll also make some 2.5″ blocks using the 1.77″ square with the 1.25″ HST and perhaps two more sizes, just for the sheer fun of making them.

They go together very quickly and press like a dream.

Baxter is definitely becoming a real quilter’s cat. Here is he lounging beneath the quilt rack and draped over the base of the floor hoop. His favourite toy, Cappy, is also close by.